


A Snake to Bring them Together

by AuraWhiteFox



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Animal Death, Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-28
Updated: 2011-04-28
Packaged: 2017-10-18 18:49:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/192091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuraWhiteFox/pseuds/AuraWhiteFox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is written for the national poetry multi-fandom exchange.</p><p>The poem used as the prompt in this fanfic is Fear of Snakes by Lorna Crozier</p>
    </blockquote>





	A Snake to Bring them Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [laceymcbain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laceymcbain/gifts).



> This is written for the national poetry multi-fandom exchange.
> 
> The poem used as the prompt in this fanfic is Fear of Snakes by Lorna Crozier

“Johhhnn! Come on Johhnn!! Come see what I got!”

“Not on your bloody life!” John Watson yelled out as he ran down the alleyway.

The sound of malicious laughing echoed behind him. A bunch of guys from school thought it would be funny to ambush him as he had been walking home.

John only had a moment to make a decision on how to handle this, seeing that it was four against one he had made the decision to run for it.

Especially when he’d seen what Sean from John’s Math class had on a stick.

A snake. A huge, long, green, possibly poisonous snake.

John ran as hard as he could away from that stick and its rider.

John’s sister, Harriet, might call him unmanly for his fear of snakes but John thought it was an understandable and rational phobia. Lots of snakes were deadly, so it was only reasonable for him to stay away from all slithering reptiles.

He couldn’t help but wonder, though, where Sean had learned of his fear of snakes. John didn’t really have friends so it wasn’t like one of John’s classmates had told him. That left only one person.

He’d kill Harry when he got the chance. He really would. Maybe he’d put itching powder in her bra and underwear…and her comb.

Revenge fantasies aside, Sean and the rest of the bullies were beginning to gain on him.

John took as many side alleys and sharp turns as he could but he still couldn’t shake these assholes.

What the hell had John done to them anyway to deserve this?!

Well…now that John thought about it, he did remember that he had punched Sean a week ago when he’d flipped a girl’s skirt. The poor girl had burst out crying and Sean and the other kids around her had only laughed at the girl’s shame.

John had, of course, been angry and horrified at this and had come to the girl’s rescue. He’d punched Sean in his laughing face and from there it was a one for all brawl.

The girl had thanked him shyly afterwards and had given him her phone number before fleeing.

John had felt pretty good after that despite the black eye and sore chest, not to mention the month’s worth of detention he’d gotten.

Sean had lost one of his front teeth to John’s punch, making him look even more like an idiot then normal in John’s opinion.

John’s lungs were beginning to burn and his legs were starting to cramp up as he continued to run.

“Hey John Watson! Wait up! We just want to give you something! All knights in shining armor need a side-kick after all!” The bastard laughed at John’s back.

How did he even have the breath to talk and laugh when John’s own breath was coming in short gasps?

John didn’t even care where he was heading; he just needed to find a place to hide long enough for them to leave him alone.

He’d already run all the way into a residential district, far away from his own neighborhood which was on the opposite side of the city. He must have gotten turned around at some point.

“Joohhhnnn!!! Come give your side-kick a big wet kiss!”

John’s fear spiked and he pushed himself harder to get away. There was no way he was getting near that slimy snake!

There was a huge house ahead of him and John couldn’t flee for much longer before his legs would give out and the boys descended upon him.

Without giving it much thought, John veered his course until he was running straight towards the house.

There was a gate and fence surrounding the obviously rich house, but John was high enough on adrenaline that he figured that he could clear it with a running jump. Once he was on the other side he’d clear around the back of the house and go out the back way.

Hopefully the others wouldn’t be as reckless as him and try to follow him. If it was just him the chances of getting caught would be slimmer then if the others tried to follow. They’d all get caught and possibly get the coppers called on them.

His mom wouldn’t be pleased at him if that happened. He’d be grounded for a year if he got hauled on home by the police.

John took a gulping breath as the gate got closer. He’d need all the oxygen in his body to make that jump.

“Hey John! Where do you think you’re going?!” Sean shouted and cursed behind him. It seemed that Sean had wised up to John’s idea.

John didn’t answer back, he was too busy flying through the air.

“Omph!” John exhaled sharply. His hands screamed at him in pain as they gripped the gates’ top spikes.

John may have been a bit on the short side but he was a brilliant jumper.

His feet scrambled for purchase on the slick metal bars. Hauling his tired body up and over the metal gate, John fell over the other side and onto his back.

Exhaling sharply John stilled for a moment. Trying to catch his breath before he made another mad dash to get to safety.

Sean and the other boys stopped on the other side of the gate, booing and name calling. As long as they stayed on that side of the fence they could call him whatever they wanted.

“Who’d of thought that the great John Watson would be such a pansy ass girl!?” Sean yelled out, his ugly face was red with anger and fatigue from chasing John across the city.

“Better a pansy ass girl then a gap toothed, baboon-assed, gorilla!” John couldn’t help but retort.

Sean face turned even redder and screwed up in such anger that John wondered absentmindly if it was going to stick that way.

Just as John was about to stand up and sneak to the backyard of the estate Sean’s expression turned from angry to unholy glee.

‘What…?’ John just had enough time to wonder what had caused such a dramatic change when Sean did something that caused the breath to leave John’s lungs sharply.

Sean pulled out a pocket knife from his pocket with his unoccupied hand, then without any hesitation he stabbed the snake through the upper neck.

Bright red blood spilled over the green scales. John was paralyzed in horror as he watched. Sean smiled nastily at John’s horrified expression and then without hesitation he threw the barely alive snake at John.

John’s body moved on its own as it flung itself sideways to get out of the way of the air born snake.

Blood sprayed over the ground as the snake landed where John had been previously.

“Wha-?!” John sputtered out.

Sean laughed insanely before turning around and walking away. At least his friends seemed just as disturbed by his actions as John was. They were all standing around with uneasy expressions on their faces and they weren’t sharing the laugh with Sean.

They all slowly walked away from the scene, whether to follow Sean or to go home John didn’t know or care. He was too busy staring at the coiling form on the ground.

Despite the lethal wound it was still alive, if only just.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” A soft voice asked.

John’s eyes widened and his head swiveled to the voice.

Standing a few feet away, in the direction of the house, was a young man, maybe a year or two younger then John. He was dressed rather formally and clearly had money, if the tailored suit was anything to go on.

John realized that he was asked a question when the man stood there, clearly waiting for an answer.

“I’m sorry, what?” John asked, overwhelmed just a tad.

The man rolled his eyes excessively.

“I don’t like repeating myself.” The man said snottily.

Now it was John’s turn to roll his eyes.

“Well, excuse me, but I was otherwise occupied with something other than your question.” John said tightly.

He turned his attention back to the snake, clearly dismissing the young man as unimportant.

John knew that he was caught and that soon the police would be called but for some reason he couldn’t be bothered with that right now.

His attention was captured completely by the twisting red and green body on the ground.

John couldn’t feel his usual fear for the snake anywhere inside of him. In fact, he had the urge to get closer to the pained creature.

“Go on then.” An exasperated voice spoke next to him. John didn’t need to look to see that it was the stranger who had spoken. For some reason he was kneeling down next to John instead of going back inside and calling the cops.

“Hmm?” John hummed out, not turning his eyes away from the creature.

“Touch it, you clearly want to.”

John finally tore his eyes away from the snake to turn disbelieving eyes at the man.

“Wha…? I don’t want to touch it!” John said sharply.

“Liar.” The man said calmly.

Before John could retort back the man continued.

”You clearly don’t lie often if you think I’d believe you. It’s alright to touch what you find fascinating you know. I do it all the time.” Despite the condescending words they were spoken in a soft, understanding tone and John couldn’t help but chuckle. He was both angry and reassured by the man.

What an odd combination.

John slowly nodded his head because the stranger was right, he did want to touch the snake, it wasn’t dead yet, though it clearly didn’t have that much longer to live, it’s body movements were becoming sluggish and the blood flow was slowing down.

John lifted a hand and marveled for a moment at how unshaken it was. He didn’t feel any fear at all.

In fact, what he was feeling right now was quite the opposite.

John’s hand reached out and slowly touched the snake’s head, it hissed softly but did little else. It was clearly too tired to do anything anymore.

John’s hand slowly began to stroke up and down, unhurriedly.

Soon the snake’s movements stopped altogether and John lifted his hand soon after.

The snake was clearly dead now.

“I can’t figure it out…did you stoke it to smooth its way into death? Or did you just want to feel its life force leave its body?” The stranger suddenly asked.

John turned his attention to the man and away from the cooling corpse and raised an incredulous eyebrow at the man’s question.

He just shrugged his shoulders because, honestly, he had no idea why he had wanted to touch it while the snake had been dying.

Well…that wasn’t completely true. He knew that the moment the snake had been stabbed and was bleeding its life’s blood all over the ground he had felt such love and kingship to the reptile that he just had to touch it was it faded away.

The stranger was clearly annoyed at John’s non-question.

“So, what’s your name?” John asked suddenly.

The question had clearly caught the other off guard, made clear when he shot John a sort of deer in the headlights look.

“Sherlock…Sherlock Holmes.” The man-Sherlock-said finally.

John nodded and stuck his hand out to shake.

“I’m John Watson.”

The sudden smile that graced Sherlock’s face took John’s breath away. It had a slight maniacal edge to it, but that only caused John’s heart to beat faster.

John knew suddenly, and with certainty, that the police wouldn’t be called on him. In fact, he didn’t think he’d be leaving anytime soon and John was, surprisingly, perfectly okay with that.

“Nice to meet you John.”

 

 

 

The End.


End file.
